


Half & Half

by skivvysupreme



Category: Glee
Genre: Coffee Shops, Hybrids, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-24 06:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6144921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skivvysupreme/pseuds/skivvysupreme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Puppy!Blaine loves his barista job, and his coworkers and customers love him. He likes to be liked, and he loves feeling appreciated. It's just… well, there's only one coworker, in particular, who Blaine wants to notice him...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Half & Half

**Author's Note:**

> Written for hedwigdarrenn, a ficlet winner in my “Yay 1,000 Followers” giveaway on tumblr! <3

Blaine considered himself lucky.

Getting this job was a long shot. Hybrids usually had more difficulty finding jobs in general, thanks to so many long-held but antiquated beliefs about their natures and capabilities. But hiring a hybrid in a coffee shop? That was damn near transgressive.

Blaine would have happily worked in the bookstore area of his local Barnes and Noble, but those jobs always went as quickly as they were posted, especially in a student-friendly area like Greenwich Village. The café had had an opening and the store manager was willing to take a chance. So, here he was, with his short, dark-furred, half-folded ears poking up through his curls and over the sides of his green visor, and his smooth black tail swaying idly behind him beneath the tie of his green apron.

The job had a lot of perks: discounted food and drinks—though he could only have the ones that were chocolate-free—plus flexible hours that fit his class schedule. The regulars adored him, his relentlessly enthusiastic temperament brightening their days whenever Blaine greeted them at the counter. He was an early worm, a morning dogperson, so he was just what they needed on most days, opening the café with perfectly-timed efficiency and boundless energy. He was valued at work, and everyone seemed to love having him there. (Although, he and the catperson who worked in the book section, Elliot, were still on the fence about each other.)

Blaine liked to be liked, and he loved feeling appreciated. It was just… well, there was one person in particular who Blaine wanted to notice him, and he made such erratic stops at the café for his caffeine fix that Blaine couldn’t tell if the feelings were mutual.

“Hi, Kurt! The usual?” Blaine called from the back of the café. He could feel the way his ears perked up high and alert on top of his head, his body already reacting to the sight of Kurt on the other side of the counter. He went bounding up to the counter as if on autopilot, and then his tail went off, wagging so hard that his hips were wiggling a little with the movement. Blaine hated how obvious he always was with his feelings, but he couldn’t really help it.

Kurt’s eyes, bright and blue-green and beautiful, flicked down to Blaine’s tail and back up. “Hi, Blaine. That would be perfect, thank you.”

“How are things in the bookshop?” Blaine asked, hoping to distract Kurt from his embarrassing reaction to his presence with a bit of conversation. He rang up Kurt’s drink with the employee discount, then started the foamy skim milk and espresso shots for a nonfat latte.

Kurt sighed, glancing back at the endless sea of bookshelves. “Chaotic, to be honest. I barely have time to refuel between constant restocks of all the new _Star Wars_ merch. I only just slipped away to come see you.”

Blaine looked up from the mocha syrup he was pumping into a paper cup, his heart speeding up as his ears raised even higher in his confusion.

“F-for my coffee,” Kurt added, a slight pink blush coloring high on his sharp cheekbones.

“Of course,” Blaine murmured, smiling to himself as he poured the shots and hot milk into Kurt’s cup. He finished it off with a spiral of chocolate syrup on top of the foam, then capped it and handed it to Kurt. “I don’t want to delay you, then,” he said, sliding the cup across the counter.

_Shit. Why did I say that? Of course I want to delay him, I don’t want him to go—_

Their fingers brushed when Kurt took the cup, sparking a warm jolt up Blaine’s arm and sending that flush in Kurt’s cheeks spreading back to his ears. Kurt’s mouth fell open, just the tiniest bit, and he stammered, “Well, um. Heh, heh. Back to work.”

Blaine hoped. He’d spent a lot of time thinking about Kurt since he started working there, contemplating his cologne and his gorgeous smile and trying to decipher exactly how Kurt felt about that _damn_ catperson Elliot, who he always spent so much time with—but still, he hoped and he hoped and he hoped…

“I’ll see you later?” Kurt started walking backwards towards the disorganized mess of a _Star Wars_ display near the center of the store, where Elliot was currently counting Funko Pop! figures with his ears poking flatly out of his beanie and his tail flicking an agitated figure-eight behind him.

“You know where to find me,” Blaine answered, tipping his visor.

Kurt just grinned and swiveled on his toes as he turned back towards his task.

“Excuse me.”

Blaine snapped his attention back to the register, where a very prim, well-dressed woman had appeared. She kept glancing around behind him with a polite smile plastered on her face.

“Hi! What can I get for you today?” Blaine asked, tilting his head to wait for her order.

“Well…Who else is working today?”

He quickly assessed her preppy ensemble. “Oh, are you looking for Jane? She’s off today, it’s just me. Can I get you anything?”

The woman’s smile went tight. “Just you? I didn’t realize they let your kind work around food.”

“I—“ Blaine faltered, and hated that he did so. He thought he’d be used to this sort of thing by now, but everyone had been so nice so far, and his stomach was dropping right along with his drooping ears. “Yes, I’m… allowed.”

“I mean, no offense or anything, it’s just that—well, you know. It’s not hygienic. You understand.”

_You understand, you disgusting, filthy hybrid—_

Blaine felt hot tears collecting behind the bridge of his nose. He didn’t know what to do; she clearly didn’t want him anywhere near her drink, but he really was working a solo shift today, and—and there was nothing wrong with him or “his kind,” but he was _so embarrassed—_

Her smile was sickeningly sweet, even underneath that distasteful little wrinkle in her nose.

Blaine found himself apologizing just because he didn’t know what else to say, his voice barely a whisper as he tried not to let the tears fall. “I’m sorry, ma’am, we—we don’t have anyone else today…”

The woman sighed. Loudly.

“Blaine! Ugh, thank god, I was hoping you were working today!” Kurt said, sliding over to the counter, right next to the woman. He grinned from ear to ear and leaned closer to her, stage-whispering, “We were so lucky to hire him.”

She raised an eyebrow and replied, “Is that so.”

“Mm-hmm. Blaine, can I have a strawberry frap, please? And could you leave off the lid? I’d like extra whipped cream, if that’s okay.”

Blaine swallowed around the lump in his throat and stared at him for a moment. His hands were shaking, but he nodded and managed to say, “Coming right up,” as he turned his back to them and went over to the frappuccino blender. He knew they could see his tail tucked between his legs quite plainly like this, but yet again, he really couldn’t control the way his body displayed his emotions.

“You don’t see a problem here?” the woman asked, not bothering to be quiet once Blaine started the blender, since she assumed that he couldn’t hear them.

Of course, being a dog hybrid, he could.

Kurt blinked owlishly at her, as if truly perplexed. “A problem with what? Oh, I cut you in line, didn’t I? Whoops, it didn’t look like you were ordering anything. Which is a shame, because Blaine is the best barista we’ve got.”

The compliment put a little flutter in Blaine’s belly as he blended the ice and strawberry juice.

“I have to say, I’m... a bit surprised that you hired a hybrid for the café.”

Kurt widened his eyes even further and nodded with a sympathetic little noise. “I know, isn’t it so great that we have such a progressive, compassionate manager? The discrimination hybrids experience is heartbreaking. How awful a person do you have to be to judge and disrespect them for who they are? For being different? Huh. And they say hybrids are the ones who haven’t evolved.”

Blaine tucked his smile into the collar of his black polo as he finished up Kurt’s drink, then turned and presented the lid-less cup to him in all its mountainous whipped cream glory.

Kurt reached for the drink but ignored the bright green straw entirely, immediately licking off the peak of the cream before the cup even made it out of Blaine’s hand. “Mmm… perfect, thank you.” Then Kurt turned towards the woman at the counter, who was watching him with a stunned expression. He gave her the coldest glare he could muster and spat, “There’s a Dunkin Donuts down the street.”

The woman looked between them in silence, then tossed her hair over her shoulder and walked towards the exit. Kurt watched her all the way out, apparently attempting to set her on fire with his eyes alone.

“I love you,” Blaine blurted, a helpless sigh falling from his lips as he gazed at Kurt.

He whipped his head around, that blazing look on his face softening as he turned back to Blaine.

“I—I mean… Thank you.” Blaine looked down at the counter, fiddling with his watch as his face burned, until Kurt reached over and tilted his head back up.

“Blaine, you are perfect. Just the way you are. You’re amazing. Don’t let anyone make you feel like you’re less, just because they can’t handle it.”

Kurt leaned across the counter, still holding Blaine’s chin, and kissed him on the cheek.

The fragile little bubble of hope in Blaine’s chest _ballooned_. He ducked his head again, this time in surprise instead of embarrassment. “Kurt…”

Kurt started walking backwards from the counter again, just as he had not too long ago, only this time, he had his bottom lip between his teeth and a pleased little smirk on his face. “The strawberry frap is for you, since I know you can’t have chocolate. I’m sorry I ate some of the whipped cream, that’s why I asked for extra. But I do have to get back and help Elliot now, or he is literally going to claw the next person who asks for a sold-out Rey figurine. So… like we said: I’ll see you later. I’m going to need my afternoon fix, after all. And another coffee.”

Blaine snorted and leaned across the counter with one hand planted on the surface and the other holding the frappuccino’s straw to his mouth, his tail wagging so hard that his ass shook in tandem as he watched Kurt go.


End file.
